Kingston WritersFest is one of Ontario's most popular literary events, drawing guest authors from around the world as well as from the dynamic and well-established Kingston literary community.
Open Book is thrilled to feature interviews with several of the festival's participating authors, starting today with Y.S. Lee, the author of The Agency: The Body at the Tower.
Visit Open Book: Ontario throughout the month for more interviews with KWF authors!
Open Book:
Have you been to or lived in Kingston before? If so, what are some of your favourite spots? If not, what are you most looking forward to about visiting?
Y.S. Lee:
I currently live in Kingston and one of my favourite things here is the Waterfront Pathway. It runs for several kilometers from downtown to Portsmouth Village, and I often walk it while thinking through a writing obstacle.
OB:
Tell us about what you’ll be reading at this year’s festival.
YSL:
I’ll be reading two shorter excerpts from The Agency novels, about a women’s detective agency in Victorian London. My sleuth, Mary Quinn, is feisty, impulsive, and thus a magnet for trouble.
OB:
What are some of your favourite memories from past readings, from this event or others?
YSL:
I saw the poet Ruth Padel read at the 2002 BBC Poetry Proms in London. She had the presence of a rock star and now, when I read her work, it’s always her voice I hear.
OB:
What’s the best advice about public readings you have ever received?
YSL:
I’ve never received ANY advice about this, and am now rather envious of those who have!
OB:
Tell us about one or two of the best Canadian books you’ve read recently.
YSL:
I wasn’t too sure about a blog-inspired book about gardening, but I’m finding Merilyn Simonds’s A New Leaf compelling, memorable and dense with beautifully turned phrases. It makes me want to garden like a fiend (assuming that fiends do, indeed, garden).
OB:
What are you most looking forward to about this year’s Kingston WritersFest?
YSL:
It’s my first festival as an author, rather than as a reader and fan. I’m most looking forward to stalking my heroes and not making a fool of myself.
Y.S. (Ying) Lee was born in Singapore and raised in Vancouver and Toronto. In 2004, she completed her PhD in Victorian literature and culture. This research, combined with her time living in London, triggered an idea for a story about a women’s detective agency. The result was the Agency novels.
She is also the author of Masculinity and the English Working Class (Routledge). She now lives in Kingston, Ontario with her family.
For more information about The Agency: The Body at the Tower please visit the Candlewick website.
Buy this book at your local independent bookstore or online at Chapters/Indigo or Amazon.
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